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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”